Skirt



' (No Model.)

' 1). PORSYTH.

SKIRT.

No. 554,998. Patented Feb. 18, 1896.

{ATENT ELLEN L. DOVVNER FORSYTH, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SKIRT.

. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 554,998, dated February 18, 1896.

Application filed August 19, 1895- To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELLEN L. DowNER FonsYTH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and usef ul Improvements in Marie-Antoinette Skirts, which are fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompa nying drawings, forming a part thereof.

. Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cloth petticoat consisting of gores or tapering sections as made for my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of such a petticoat when provided with the springs or form-wires of my invention, the sinuous lines indicating the position or arrangement of such spring-wires. Fig. 3 is a plan diagram of a system of spring-wires as they would appear if the petticoat were found on a form adapted to take out all the fullness at the bottom and holding the bottom line in a circle. Fig. 4 is a view of several of the gores as they would appear laid flat, the sinuous lines denoting the course of the springs therein. Fig. 5 is a detail showing, on an exaggerated scale, one of the wire springs employed and the braid or tape by which it is secured to the fabric partly broken away. Fig: 6 is an end view of wire spring inclosed between cloth petticoat and braid or tape fastened on either side.

The fabric of the petticoat comprises a plurality of gores a b c d efg'h i. I do not limit myself to the precise number here shown. The form-sustaining spring-wires are very small coils of very fine wires which are very flexible. Their purpose is to cause a tendency of the several gores of which the garment is composed to take naturally the form of organpipe plaits when the garment is suspended from the waist with the bottom line supported naturally on the floor, and for this purpose the distribution of weight, as well as the clasticity of the springs, is taken into account, and the result is in large part due to the distribution of weight.

The general plan is that upon the fabric, preferably upon the back or under side, there are mounted and secured in the manner shown in Fig. 5that is to say, by means of a tape M at lines 0 O stitched onto the fabric or equivalent means, which will occur to any dressm alter-the wire coils (sometim'esherein Serial No. 559,709. (No model.)

called spring-wires L,the same being made to extend in sinuous or wave lines around the garment or particularly at the back thereof, the crests or highest points of each wave of the wave-line being at the middle of the width of the several gores respectively, the lowest points of depression of the waves being coniparatively sharp and being at the seams between consecutive gores. This causes the several gores to stand out in the form of organ-pipe plaits, so called, with a tendency to throw the seams inward at the junctions of the gores respectively.

On the front of the skirt, com prising a single gore, which is of exceptional breadth as compared with the other gores, and being, therefore, designed to be fiatterthat is, to stand curved in the arc of a larger circle than the othergores, particularly than those at the extreme backthe wave-lines of the'springwires are less curved or more flat than on the other gores. On the other hand, the plaits at the rear of the wave-line are most prominent and convex, and at the side the convexity is intermediate between that of the front and rear. The same expedientviz. shaping the wave-line of the spring-wire up and down according to the horizontal curvature desired in the several organ-pipe plaits which the gores respectively constituteis employed to produce a sinuosity or double curvature in certain of the plaits-as, for example, f and g. The spring-wires are massed toward the bottom in front and at the sides-that is, are closer together toward the lower edgefor the purpose of stiffening the edge and making the outline more certain while still leaving the edge elastic and flowing, and wherever it is desired to produce a concavity in vertical outline the distribution of the springs is made such that their weight tends to sag the skirt at such points. This is easily seen at the point I on the front gore J, Fig. 2, and also in the flattening and slightly concavin g in a vertical plane of the rear plait E.

The wire spring in Fig. 4 is attached to the inner side of the petticoat or interlining, beginning at the side bottom, running through the back and encircling the base of the skirt once or twice, connecting again at its beginning, as at A in Fig. 3, making one or two complete circles. The wire spring may, how- ICC ever, commence at the side bottom K, Fig. 3, running across at the base of the skirt, passing above the end of the spring-wire at the place of beginning when once around and continue encircling the skirt, making one continuous wire, tending upward. from the side across the back of the skirt and in wave-like motions across the back, as section of line B C in Fig. 3, increasing their distance apart across the back from each last spring-wire and running lower and closer together across the front than in the back.

lVire spring gores or short lines of wire spring, as F G in Fig. 3, run across the back in wave-lines until the last spring-wire at E, Fig. 2, crosses the back of the skirt near the waistband H, Fig. 2, while the last springwire across the front extends about one-third of the distance, J I, Fig. 2, from the base J to waistband H, Fig. 2, making the excess of weight of the skirt in the lower part of the front, and the closeness of the spring-wire at the base tending to throw out and gradually spreading the bottom, making the skirt flaring or bell-shaped in appearance. The distribution of the spring-wire in the back, Fig. 2, being a little heavier at the base than near the waist causes a flare slightly greater at the base, and the wave-line arrangement of the spring-wire tends to draw the skirt in folds or plaits of the form callec organ-pipe plaits, the upper curve or crest of the waveline throwing the fold out, while the downward wave, crossing at the junction of the gores, falls in, forming the inner fold of the plait. The coiling of the spring-wire around the skirt and the loose insertion of it between the braid and inter-lining or petticoat gives easy play and elasticity in every direction, so that the skirt may be sat on or crumpled in any manner and when released resume its original shape in folds or plaits, and producing the flare or bell-shaped bottom.

I claim- 1. A skirt as an article of manufacture,composed of gores or tapering sections of fabric, torsionally and flexibly elastic springs secured to the fabric in sinuous lines, the crests or highest points of sinuosity being substan tially at the middle part of the width of each gore, and the lowest part being at the scams or junctions of the gores, whereby the gores are caused to normally take the form of organ-pipe plaits: substantially as set forth.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a skirt having its fabric made up from a plurality of gores, and torsionally and flexibly elastic springs secured, in sinuous lines, to the gores of said fabric and imparting thereto a series of plaits or folds, substantially as and for the purposes described.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a skirt having its fabric made of a series of gores, and torsionally and flexibly elastic springs secured to the gores of the fabric in circumferentially sinuous lines, said springs being massed to lie closer together toward the lower edge of the skirt, as set forth.

4. As an article of manufacture, a skirt consisting of the gored fabric, torsionally and flexibly elastic springs arranged in circumferentially sinuous lines, and a sheath or covering for each spring which is attached to the fabric but is unattached to the spring, said springs being free to twist and recover within the sheath or covering without material restraint from the sheath or the fabric, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, at Chicago, Illinois, in the presence of two witnesses, this 17th day of August, 1895.

ELLEN L. DOVVNER FORS'YTII.

\Vitnesses:

J 0s. SCHNEIDER, A. E. REINKE. 

